How Long of a Hitch Extension Should I Use ?
06-10-2013 | 03:16 PM
#16
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Joined: Oct 2011
Posts: 197
Likes: 4
From: San Francisco
Thank you for sharing your badass setup!!
Here are a couple of pics of my custom fabricated hitch extension and related hardware (which still needs to be painted or powder coated):
The lower section goes into the factory receiver hitch, which has a piece of solid 2x2 steel welded inside of it. The longer upper section was welded on top to get some more lift to make a readily available riser ball mount come out to the correct height for flat-towing my lifted Jeep. Had it not been done that way, the riser ball mount would have had to be another 2-1/2" taller. The side chains tie into the two beefy D-ring tabs on my rear Road Armor bumper
And here are three shots of this set-up installed on my truck:
The hitch extension ended up being 25-3/4" long (truck receiver pin to hitch extension pin). The Reese riser ball mount added another 10" (hitch extension/ball mount pin to ball center).
The center of the ball on the riser ball mount is approximately 11" to 12" rearward of the back wall of my camper, which will give me plenty of swing clearance. Despite this, we can still put the scissor stairs on the rear of our camper with the hitch extension in place, as long as we either remove the riser ball mount, or alternatively just temporarily reverse it downwards into a drop ball mount configuration.
As previously discussed, I am only flat-towing a Jeep Wrangler TJ (and never intend to tow any form of trailer with my camper on board), so I essentially have zero tongue weight. Based on that, I believe my hitch extension set-up will safely get the job done, such that a Reese Tow Beast or Torklift SuperHitch set up would be overkill for my application IMO.
Don
The lower section goes into the factory receiver hitch, which has a piece of solid 2x2 steel welded inside of it. The longer upper section was welded on top to get some more lift to make a readily available riser ball mount come out to the correct height for flat-towing my lifted Jeep. Had it not been done that way, the riser ball mount would have had to be another 2-1/2" taller. The side chains tie into the two beefy D-ring tabs on my rear Road Armor bumper
And here are three shots of this set-up installed on my truck:
The hitch extension ended up being 25-3/4" long (truck receiver pin to hitch extension pin). The Reese riser ball mount added another 10" (hitch extension/ball mount pin to ball center).
The center of the ball on the riser ball mount is approximately 11" to 12" rearward of the back wall of my camper, which will give me plenty of swing clearance. Despite this, we can still put the scissor stairs on the rear of our camper with the hitch extension in place, as long as we either remove the riser ball mount, or alternatively just temporarily reverse it downwards into a drop ball mount configuration.
As previously discussed, I am only flat-towing a Jeep Wrangler TJ (and never intend to tow any form of trailer with my camper on board), so I essentially have zero tongue weight. Based on that, I believe my hitch extension set-up will safely get the job done, such that a Reese Tow Beast or Torklift SuperHitch set up would be overkill for my application IMO.
Don
06-14-2013 | 12:50 PM
#17
Registered User
Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 1,012
Likes: 2
From: Auburn, WA
You don't need a super hitch with the truss and all that crap just to flat tow a jeep. If you were putting a decent tongue load on the extension it would be a different story.
I just went through the same thing. Bought a camper, little over 8'6" long in a short bed. Pulling a utility trailer.
Your camper looks about the same length, 2' overhang past the truck bed.
Theoretically you'd need the same length extension as the amount of overhang for everything to work the same, however you have the advantage that your camper does not hang down very low (same with mine, actually a consideration when camper shopping as a camper with a low back bumper would require more expense and consideration for using the trailer hitch.) which affords you some room to shorten the extension and allow part of the trailer tongue to be under the back of the camper.
Obviously you have to take into account sharp turns and break over angles so you dont get into the camper with the towed vehicle.
I ended up being able to tow the util trailer with only an 8" extension. I already had an 18" ext to use if I had to throw it on to get through a real tight turn or something, but in the 2000+mi trip from WA to AK last month with the camper and trailer I never needed it.
Depending how long the tongue is on the tow bar, you may be able to use a short extension as well, but in your case, with zero tongue weight and very little stress turning, I'd use whatever length was optimal for articulation of the towed vehicle with respect to the camper since you are essentially in straight pull all the time.
I just went through the same thing. Bought a camper, little over 8'6" long in a short bed. Pulling a utility trailer.
Your camper looks about the same length, 2' overhang past the truck bed.
Theoretically you'd need the same length extension as the amount of overhang for everything to work the same, however you have the advantage that your camper does not hang down very low (same with mine, actually a consideration when camper shopping as a camper with a low back bumper would require more expense and consideration for using the trailer hitch.) which affords you some room to shorten the extension and allow part of the trailer tongue to be under the back of the camper.
Obviously you have to take into account sharp turns and break over angles so you dont get into the camper with the towed vehicle.
I ended up being able to tow the util trailer with only an 8" extension. I already had an 18" ext to use if I had to throw it on to get through a real tight turn or something, but in the 2000+mi trip from WA to AK last month with the camper and trailer I never needed it.
Depending how long the tongue is on the tow bar, you may be able to use a short extension as well, but in your case, with zero tongue weight and very little stress turning, I'd use whatever length was optimal for articulation of the towed vehicle with respect to the camper since you are essentially in straight pull all the time.
06-18-2013 | 12:37 AM
#19
DTR's Volcano Monitor, Toilet Smuggler, Taser tester, Meteorite enumerator, Quill counter, Match hoarder, Panic Dance Choreographer, Bet losing shrew murderer
Joined: May 2007
Posts: 965
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From: Kenai Alaska
Since he originally started this post awhile back it would be neat if he could tell us how it worked out.
12-30-2013 | 08:29 AM
#20
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Joined: Dec 2013
Posts: 1
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